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Yes. Thanks a lot, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining our Q2 results call. As always, please take kindly note of the disclaimer in the notes. And then let's get started. And let me open this call with a clear statement of confidence. I think we are all quite impressed with the changes COVID-19 has introduced on public, private and business life. Nonetheless, we are here at Metro are fully confident that not only we can get through the situation well, but actually, we see opportunities on how to transform the business even further to the positive. What we've seen in Q2 until the arrival of COVID-19 in Europe is a quite solid and accelerated growth, which has been driven by a much better customer response and a growing and improving NPS. Of course, as middle of March, we have seen that the HoReCa sector has been impacted severely by governmental restrictions and therefore volumes have come down significantly as well. However, and I think that is something that has now materialized quite solidly, is the fact that Cash & Carry operations based on stores and access to quite diverse customer base are very valuable in this very moment of crisis. We have seen solid growth in SCOs, and that could mitigate some of the HoReCa and specifically the FSD in the delivery decline. We've also seen that we were able to, therefore, attract and retain quite a number of customers. Nevertheless, of course, such a mitigation cannot hold our financial guidance and that's why on the 3rd of April, we have basically withdrawn from it.In the situation of crisis, we have developed an approach which is based on 3 pillars, and we will go into more detail later on, which is: Protect, and that is valid for our people, it's valid for our partners, and it's valid for our customers; Preserve, in the sense that we want to preserve all operations and predominantly as well the bottom line and the cash position; And Grow, because we see that there is good opportunity to get out of this crisis even in better shape. And we do that on the base of full empowerment of our local entities and that is the reason why we can react and act very fast and flexible. We have also a position that is quite strong when it comes to the balance sheet, and Christian will explain that in more detail later on. We have entered into the crisis with a quite solid liquidity access. And now having completed the transaction with the sale of the majority of Metro China, we got excess amount of EUR 1.5 billion into our own banks. And that means we are well positioned to manage through this crisis and therefore then capture growth opportunities, while now the lockdowns are being released gradually in many places throughout Europe. So let's look at today's agenda. Of course, we will explain to you how you need to read through Q2, which was pretty resilient. We will give you more insight on how the COVID-19 action plan has been developed and now is in full implementation mode since a couple of weeks. And then as well, remind you on the progress of some of the underlying goals, which predominantly have to do with the change of the portfolio setup, but also our headquarter adjustment here in Metro AG. And with that, I would like to hand over to Christian who will explain you the Q2 financials now.
Thank you, Olaf, and good morning also from my side. On the financial results, I will thoroughly focus on the continuing operations. Olaf will later on comment on the remaining discontinued operations, which is Real, and the strong operating performance that we have seen in Q2 that is also continuing. With respect to the Q2, we had a strong quarter on like-for-like sales of 2.3%, where HoReCa and Trader really accelerated the growth prior to the COVID-19 situation. So strong development in these key focus groups, especially in January and in February. The second half of Q2 certainly was increasingly affected, especially in Western Europe by COVID-19, where especially HoReCa businesses came under pressure and the SCO businesses by the stocking-up purchases from the SCO customers increased quite significantly. Therefore, Q2 overall had a quite atypical growth in the different customer groups with HoReCa close to minus 10% and Trader in excess of 11% growth. That certainly has been atypical and I will later on show how that also in the quarter had different chapters of development.With respect to the adjusted EBITDA that has been stable year-on-year and the reported EBITDA and EPS decrease, and that is due to the transformation costs for the efficiency measures and no real estate gains in this specific quarter.With respect to the free cash flow, there is a slight reduction, especially driven by the reported EBITDA decrease and also lower investments that were only partially able to balance the weaker net working capital that was a direct subsequent from the topic of COVID-19.With respect to net debt, we were below prior year and have, therefore, carried over most of the improvement out of the last fiscal year. There is one key element of focus that Olaf also mentioned, which is the liquidity at this very stage. We have a very strong liquidity position on our balance sheet, strong access to additional topics and monies, and also have received in the Q3 now in April the proceeds from the China transaction are, therefore, very well positioned on that.But now let's look into how the quarter actually panned out. And I think this quarter has been dominated by basically 3 different chapters. Chapter 1 is the operational development prior to COVID-19, then the beginning of COVID-19 and the beginning of governmental restrictions. And then on the very right side, the broad spread of COVID really across all the countries in our portfolio. So if we start on the left side and that's a period that goes basically from January to late February. We have seen very strong operational development, especially in our key focus groups, be it HoReCa and Trader and really also increasing strongly the momentum that we did see already in Q1. And that also relates to really all regions, including Russia, where basically the unhampered performance by COVID-19 has already been very strong and very good underlying trends that we have seen there. When we then go to the middle, which is a period that basically went from early to mid-March broadly, we saw that the HoReCas, basically in many countries, starting with Italy in Europe really was harmed very, very significantly. And in other countries, it was still ongoing. We did see Trader development positive for the drive of proximity that was out there as well as SCOs going especially strong because of stock-up sales and Metro providing, at that stage, really a one-stop shopping experience to reduce the contact points of customers when they do purchase for their daily needs.When we then go on the right side, we certainly see that HoReCa has been hampered massively with the lockdown in -- implemented in many, many countries over there. And that continues, although we see significant efforts of the government to leave -- to lift the restrictions and that should basically already impact in the positive way the HoReCa development that we should be seeing in May and then in continuous months.With respect to Trader, there is still a positive development. And SCOs, they are continuously strongly growing, although certainly, that's not able to make up the very significant drop that we are seeing in the HoReCa side. And therefore, very broad measures have been implemented that Olaf will later on talk about how we really address those topics.In terms of the trend for April, that is roughly continuing in that way, although we need to say that there have been some significant government restrictions also in some countries that have not been impacted in late March or early April. But as of now, in May, we see more uplift of restrictions. With respect to looking forward, some updates in April on the restrictions that I've mentioned. We confirm our expectation that each additional month with a current level of restrictions to a sales loss of roughly 2% sales growth versus the prior year. And on the EBITDA side, while we are working very heavily on countermeasures, overall, there is expected to be a negative impact on EBITDA because these countermeasures can only, to a smaller extent, really rebalance that sales loss.If we now look into the full quarterly performance, starting with sales to EBITDA. We see one more time the 2.3% like-for-like sales. That is driven really by growth in almost all regions and also slightly supported by the 29th of February, the Leap Day. I think it's very important to also state the store-based business that has grown quite significantly with close to 4% in this very quarter. And on the other hand, delivery, you can see that impact normally will be growing in the small double-digit percentage range, now with a minus 5%, and that was really impacted by COVID, because especially our FSD operations were strongly harmed by that. And also, as a result, there is a slightly reduced sales share from delivery.This quarter has been also driven slightly by adverse currency movements and that is especially in the Turkish lira. On the EBITDA side, as mentioned before, we are rough on PY level. Adjusted for FX, there is a slight improvement that we've seen. And that is especially that improvement in regions with a strong sales growth and also in the segment, Others, that were able to compensate for the declining regions, that's mostly Western Europe. In the segment, Others, the improved operating result in logistics that is similar to Q1, but also first cost savings from the efficiency measures in the headquarter have been positive. And therefore, again, slight improvement EBITDA in Q2 and a small reduction of 1% of EBITDA in the first half.On the reported EBITDA, as you can see on this chart, real estate gains have not been there as expected and as promised in this way. And on the other hand, transformation costs have basically impacted the EUR 45 million that we see here. Just for memory, from next year onwards, we are expecting a mid double-digit million savings from these headquarter reorganizations.Let's now look into really the regional performance. And when we look overall, I think the broad scheme of things is that countries and regions with higher SCO and Trader share have been faring better in the Q2, while countries that have a very significant HoReCa share were certainly impacted most by governmental restrictions. And then, EBITDA also has been growing in the 3 regions with a strong sales growth.In more detail, when we look at Germany, certainly significant SCO share and very strong performance of the team there and the value proposition has driven strong like-for-like sales, while HoReCa and the delivery channel certainly has been under pressure. On balance, we have been able to achieve a significant growth in EBITDA of EUR 11 million, which is driven by both the sales growth and also margin accretive baskets on the SCO side.Western Europe certainly is dominated by countries that are really in nationwide lockdowns, especially France. That's including our Metro France business, but also Pro a Pro. And that's Italy and also Spain. Many countries here are really showing negative sales growth. That is also resulting in margin pressure because some of the very high-margin businesses on the HoReCa side are going away. Still, the local country operations have done an amazing job in really making our stores safe for employees and our customers. And we have been able, with the exception of very few stores that were temporarily closed, to keep up our operations in order to support our customers, especially during that difficult time. The teams have also adjusted opening hours for many stores or closed some of the departments in order to release over our accruals, dampen the effect of decreasing sales and also entering as a counterbalance into furloughs where that was necessary, and we were able to implement that in a swift and appropriate manner. Despite the measures, the like-for-like sales were at minus 6.3% in Q2, certainly very -- more significant in the second half of Q2. And the EBITDA was at minus EUR 32 million compared to the prior year.Russia, again, as mentioned before, a very strong quarter, especially in January and in February. That was completely unimpacted by COVID-19. And all 3 customer groups were up store sales and also the delivery business on that side. The EBITDA growth of EUR 4 million has been achieved on that end. In Eastern Europe, with plus 11% growth, that was driven by almost all countries, especially with Turkey and Romania doing particularly well. And the EBITDA also there increased by EUR 11 million at constant currencies, driven by the strong sales development.The Asian segment certainly has light and shadow in a way that key businesses are performing well. Nevertheless, CFF, the business that is totally focused on gastronomy, has certainly been impacted quite significantly. And that already early on, given that we are talking here about a business that is mostly focused on Asian megacities, that basically has been already impacted throughout the quarter. And therefore, in the end, we see an EBITDA reduction here of EUR 9 million in that quarter.So if I now move forward, and that's unfortunate because the chart has been corrupted and it is still being uploaded here on the IR website. So you will be able to follow now or easily afterwards the chart on EBITDA to EPS, where I will walk through in a bit more detail in order to provide you with a full detail there.The reported EBITDA with which we start has reduced as mentioned before by the transformation costs and the lack of real estate gains. So we start with EUR 87 million of reported EBITDA. Then there is D&A that has increased compared to prior year and now stands at EUR 230 million, which leads to an EBIT of negative EUR 143 million for this quarter 2. The investment -- the interest and investment result has been improving by EUR 5 million compared to the prior year, stands at minus EUR 55 million. In the other financial result, there has been quite a significant swing and that is driven by the additional volatility that is coming in by IFRS 16, where especially foreign currency lease contracts are needed to be converted at the then prevailing rate at the end of the respective quarter. And what we have seen certainly COVID-driven, there has been a massive dislocation in the FX market and therefore, the devaluation of many Central, Eastern European currencies has led to a significant swing on this one. That is a negative EUR 54 million that we see there. Very important to say that is a noncash effect and certainly is also swinging into various directions and can also move back in future quarters. We are very heavily focused, as you know, on reducing volatility in the other financial result, but IFRS 16 is providing basically a bit more volatility there that we are managing as much as that is possible. With respect to the EBT, we then end up at minus EUR 252 million. Tax rate, that basically has significantly increased compared to prior year, but also in line with the expectations that we have provided. And that's mostly driven by transformation costs and also the temporarily lower income from real estate. So before efficiency measures, the tax rate is at 59%. Including the efficiency measures, and that's what you see on that chart, it's at 71%. That leads us to an EPS of negative EUR 0.32 compared to negative EUR 0.16 in the last year's quarter. And again, that's driven mostly by the onetime costs, the real estate gain reduction, the CFF impairment that we needed to do also related to COVID-19 that I mentioned before and some FX volatility. If you would adjust for the transformation costs, the EBIT -- the EPS reduction would only be by EUR 0.10 to negative EUR 0.26. Again, sorry for this not being displayed, but please go to the IR website in order to look at the detail. If we then move into the free cash flow. Here, we also have added additional information on the leases which you can see under footnote 1, that is especially in order to provide the transparency that unfortunately goes a little bit away in light of the application of IFRS 16. That free cash flow has been slightly impacted by COVID-related impact on the net working capital. The most prominent one is the reduction in trade payables at the end of the quarter, and that certainly is driven predominantly by the reduced purchasing volumes that our country teams were doing going into in April where the expectation certainly was of lower trading volumes compared to the prior year. And therefore, that has had a negative impact on the net working capital.Still on the cash investment side, we have reduced in order to counterbalance that and in order to reflect the more CapEx light remodeling. And this then brought us to a free cash flow of minus EUR 560 million, EUR 20 million below prior year. On the full free cash flow -- sorry, on the full cash flow perspective, that is also provided in the appendix, the picture looks broadly similar on operating, investing and financing cash flow. As a result, on net debt, we carried over most of the reduction from Q1 and the fiscal year results.Let's now move on to some info that we usually do not share on these calls, but we are very keen to provide more insights on our very strong financing position in the current state of crisis and also our strong endurance sustainability as and if this crisis does continue. Most important starting point is our liquidity position is strong. By the end of the quarter, we had more than EUR 600 million of cash on the balance sheet. We did have a slightly reduced net debt compared to the prior year. And very importantly, we don't have any bonds that are maturing for this fiscal year and also not for the next fiscal year, and therefore, are very well positioned on this one. On top of that, we do have access to committed additional funds in excess of EUR 1 billion, which is a very important fallback option to have there. And what we have now on the 23rd of April done is closed the China transaction with a cash-in of in excess of EUR 1.5 billion. That certainly provide a massive strengthening of the already strong balance sheet and liquidity position that we do have there. The sale of our hypermarkets business is expected to close during summer and will also provide additional liquidity and strengthening of the balance sheet. So in total, the proceeds from the transactions will reduce net debt by almost EUR 2 billion and will provide additional operational flexibility. And then in a very pro forma basis here of the net debt to EBITDA, that would result to a ratio slightly above 3x.So in summary, on that topic, our very strong liquidity position and the access to committed sources as well as the additional China proceeds that came in post-closing of the last quarter, we are very well equipped to manage the crisis and to also capture growth opportunities that will certainly arise. With that, let me hand over to Olaf for the strategic update.
Yes. Thank you, Christian. Let me open the strategic update with an update on how the hypermarket business is doing and how we are progressing with the transaction.Well, first of all, I think it's worth noticing that the hypermarket business has enjoyed quite a strong run already in Q2. And that predominantly, of course, has been also supported by the fact that a big box operation in food retail provides certain advantages when it comes to safe buying experience, but also access to nonfood products. You'll see that we have achieved a like-for-like growth, which is the highest we've seen in many, many years, more than 10 years, of 8.7%. And also the bottom line profitability has been improved nicely. And this is all consolidated at Metro AG under discontinued operations until the moment of closing of the transaction. Closing of the transaction is coming closer. The necessary preconditions are all there. We also got the clearance from the Ministry of Economics here in Germany earlier this week. Therefore, we are well in the timeline to close the transaction in summer in the month of June is what we expect. And then let's switch to the wholesale business and our response to the corona crisis. As I said, we have chosen a 3-pillar approach: Protect, Preserve and Grow. And let me explain in more detail on what this is all about. Well, #1 is we always say that our customers are served by our success factor #1, which is our employees. And we can only do that with our partners. So people essentially are Success Factor #1 at Metro, and for that reason, we immediately installed a quite wide range of measures to protect the people within the business and the people that are exposed to the business. As a consequence, we only had a very small number of cases also amongst the workforce of Metro. And we continue to implement all of these measures with a very strong rigor and we are monitoring the situation very closely. This certainly has been a reason why people felt very safe to shop in our stores. And as you can see on the bottom right, more than 95% of our stores have been open and remained open throughout this crisis. So people has been a high priority and I dare to say it's also one of the preconditions for engagement which we have seen rising also throughout the whole organization. Preserving the business, second one. And here, of course, we cannot neglect the fact that the top line is coming down and we need to adjust our business accordingly which comes to cost. And therefore, we have adjusted personnel cost wherever we saw the necessity and the possibility to do that. We also reduced the service utilization in that manner that we therefore protect our bottom line with all cost adjustments that are accessible. We also have adjusted our operations to the market situation. Meaning adjusting the store openings in certain regions where we know that the demand has come down, we have limited opening hours as much as we reduced some of the more demanding departments where shrinkage becomes a huge problem, like the Ultra-fresh departments in Southern Europe where we initiated closedown early on. As much as we then as well reviewed marketing expenses and did stop quite a number of those. And last but not least, in adjusting operations, it's clear that our dedicated delivery entities have been slowed down to a minimum whereas we can continue to work out-of-store delivery in a much more agile manner.We have been fairly effective in accessing goods in our cross-country analytics and forecasting which product is in demand. And our international reach into the supply base also has shown to be a strength in the moment of crisis. So we could optimize availability of critical goods in various countries, and therefore, as well provide an advantage for our customers.And last but not least, cash is king in times of crisis. So closely monitoring the stock, making sure we are not running in huge overstocks, and very restrictive CapEx management as much as a review of the days receivable outstanding, which, of course, is a topic specifically with the hospitality sector.So all in all, we have action plans across all countries that are monitored here as well by the operating board and the center, and therefore, we feel we have a very strong grip in this moment of crisis. But what it's all about in moments of crisis is to think ahead and plan for what's coming next. And here, for the 3 groups that we are serving, we have taken different approach. Of course, the HoReCa industry has been impacted the most severely and therefore suffered also the most. We immediately started to provide crisis management support, i.e., advisory to our customers on how to deal with the situation as much as a telephone hotline that they could call to get advice. But also to help them to access some of the local support programs that they were qualified for, but most often actually didn't have the means to apply for them. We helped them as well to rethink their business and activate all kinds of complementary business, like providing a delivery service and open up for food ordering trends which we have seen growing quickly also through our digital reach and a trend that we also expect to last for longer than just the crisis. We're also engaged in being the political voice to address the needs of the hospitality sector on regional, national and even European level. And we'll continue to do so because we feel that, that community of business people needs a stronger support and a backing also from policymakers. And last but not least, we have a launchpad on the ex corona time, where we have action plans that are actually not only prepared, they are implemented while we speak to help a restaurant now to reopen and to get ready to start to serve customers again according to the regulations that have been exposed to the hospitality sector throughout Europe. On the Trader side, we had a steady business, and we, of course, want to expand it. And in the times of crisis, neighborhood stores actually have grown in regard of relevance and importance. And that also is an opportunity for us to continue with our expansion on the franchise model. The franchise business model will become a key priority for the coming years and we are absolutely decisive in taking advantage of business model that gives the freedom and the liberty to the entrepreneur. And on the other hand, gives the reach of an international organization like Metro to facilitate something that is to the benefit of the consumer, the independent entrepreneur and Metro itself. We also engage more on the end consumer side by collaborating with B2B2C companies, i.e., those who do e-grocery and foods within our stores. This also will be a trend which will not only exist in this crisis, but will last for longer, we are convinced. And then last but not least, the SCO. It has been mentioned before by Christian, SCOs who certainly are not a strategic customer group for us, they are the complementary group. And they used to come in very former days because of special promotions and an appearance of Cash & Carry store that was more like a hypermarket. This will not come back. I just want to make sure that nobody gets a misunderstanding on that. But what people do discover is that Metro has changed for good on the food side and that we provide access to products that are not accessible in general food retail. And that has made some people, quite a large number of people rediscover Metro and we want to retain them as those customers are very profitable. As much as we could also have quite a large number of people discovering Metro, i.e., by approaching them through our sales force and our marketing efforts. But also through a timely limited opening for B2C in a number of countries, the likes like Germany, in provinces, in Netherlands and in Austria. All of this is encouraging because we can see that we can adjust to the needs throughout the crisis and we can cushion some of the heavy decline in hospitality by growth in SCO. What we are doing while we speak is we are ramping up the rollout of those plans that I was just referring to and we want to accelerate in the coming weeks to take advantage as well to gain some market share. This is not hypothetical that we can start to grow, it's based on facts because we now know by date, in which region of Europe we will see a reopening of HoReca and we know very well how the regulation looks like. So therefore, we will start to accelerate the engine now. So how do we see our future? Well, first of all, we see that COVID-19 certainly had a significant impact, and it will have an impact for a bit of time. However, it's without any question that high-quality food remains a high priority among consumer preferences. And if you look into various reports and studies, among the things that people missed the most throughout the crisis, is the experience to dine out, to enjoy food with other people, to visit a restaurant, to visit a best bistro or cafe. This is a strong trend which we don't see slowing down or disappearing. We will see that the release of restrictions that are now happening will start to reactivate that trend. And therefore, we will make sure that we respect the governmental implications and we will also promote a higher cautiousness. But on the other hand, we remain very positive that, that trend will continue. So therefore, the HoReCa volumes as of May should start to gradually regrow. We've seen a very slow month of April. May should be the turning point. We also do understand that flexible structures in this period of time will be essential because there might be a back and forth here and there. And to meet that demand, we feel that a combination of a Cash & Carry operation with food service distribution and our whole range of services and digital solutions, as we call it, Wholesale 360, is an ideal combination. And last but not least, the complementary business, the SCO business I referred to, will remain important to cushion some of the volatility that certainly will still be around.So let me summarize. And without repeating the statements that I made earlier, let me make a couple of observations which are not speculative, but are affirming some of the comments Christian made and some of the observations we have based on facts and figures.We are in a crisis which only gradually will be released, but we are there with a strong balance sheet and strong access to liquidity. We have higher resilience to the crisis due to the complementary access to SCOs, and therefore, a chance to cushion some of the headwind that we see in the HoReCa sector. It is a fact that restrictions are now released on a gradual basis throughout Europe. Therefore, as of now, HoReCa volumes will grow. And our plans to implement the measures are already in full swing and active throughout all countries.Let me conclude then with the calendar. And let me remind you that we will have a virtual roadshow in times of corona on Friday, May 8, and then on Monday, May 12. And then please take note as well of the calendar for the upcoming financial reporting date.With that, let me conclude my presentation. And Christian and myself are here for Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from the line of Volker Bosse from Baader Bank.
Volker Bosse, Baader Bank. I would like to start with your guidance. Taking your guidance into account, sales will decline by minus 2% per local -- per lockdown month. So does it mean or is it fair to assume that after 7 months group sales should have been on previous year's level at end of April so to say? And -- yes, now the lockdown is going to be ended. Am I right to assume that we see no gradual improvement, means in May or latest in June, the sales decline should already be better than the minus 2% which you predicted? And how do you look at the end of the year? Are you confident that your business will be recovered at end of the year in regards to sales on a year-on-year comparison basis? The second question would be regarding the Real. Good performance there. Does that mean -- or does that have any impact on your negotiation of potential payments or purchase price parameters? How does it affect at that front? And last but not least question, higher organic standard. That's the new normal, I would say. What does it mean in regards to extra costs for these kind of measures? Is it already possible to give any guidance on the extra cost frontier?
So on your comment on sales and the math that you have applied, is about right. So no comment on that, on the year-to-date sales.When it comes to the prediction of sales, we have now a clear visibility on the release of restriction in a number of places throughout Europe, but not in all to be absolutely precise. And that means that, yes, I agree, and I made that statement before. The HoReCa volume should grow, but they will not come back to the volume we have seen prior to the crisis in a few days. That will be a process. And we need to get more clarity around the release of restrictions throughout Europe as a whole through all regions. By that time, and then seeing how the business will develop by that time, only we will be able to make a full assessment on how we predict the sales development in the coming months. But yes, it's correct, the year-to-date effect, as you calculated it. And yes, it's correct to say that as of year, it should turn better. Now we all are not in the situation to predict whether there's going to be a second lockdown, which, of course, then would have a negative impact, right? On Real, it is true that the outperformance that we had also has helped us in the way how we are negotiating with our partners in the industry. Real has enjoyed excess volumes. And as such, of course, also that was helpful in our conversations with our partners in the industry.
With respect to extra costs, yes, they do exist, but in different ways, in different countries. The most important topic for us is to make our stores a safe place for our employees and also for our customers to shop. And therefore, yes, at places we're investing into the key elements in order to get that feeling and factual situation of safety in terms of an overall massive factor in light of the recovery that would be and needs to be possible on the sales side. That just takes a minor role from a cost perspective.
Next question is from the line of Juergen Elfers from Commerzbank.
I have a few. The first one is for Olaf. You said that the Real is likely to close during summer. So far, I believe I -- it was to be expected at the end of May or throughout the month of June. Has there been a delay? That's the first question. The second is for Christian. It's on the gap between investments that have been shown on Slide 11 of cash investments. They were down EUR 16 million. However, in the quarterly report, investments were set to be up by EUR 32 million to EUR to 170 million. And I was just wondering whether you could explain that gap. Then third, it's one for Olaf again. It's strategically on food service delivery. Olaf, I was wondering to ask, with this easing of restrictions now coming up step by step, obviously, there need to be distances between tables and restaurants and in the bars. Hence, do you see drop sizes in food service delivery to match customer needs which are supposed to be down in the initial step-by-step opening of restaurants? Would you have to reduce drop sizes to your clients in FSD? And would that turn the FSD business model into losses? That's the third question. And then one for Christian again, on the likely double-digit million euros in savings from the transformation costs. Can you be a bit more precise on what you expect? And when those costs will fully impact the P&L?
All right. On your first question regarding the closing of Real, we always said summer 2020. And indeed, end of May, early June, has always been our target date. We have basically been on the plan despite the fact that we had COVID-19 and certain authorities also have had less accessibility which is needed for some of the real estate transfers. So that has been one of the things that we have been worried about. But all in all, we can confirm that our timeline with June 2020 is absolutely there and therefore, no reason to be worried. On the FSD side, I think that is an absolute valid question. And I think in many ways, we will need to accommodate the more volatile ramp-up of HoReCa demands. We will not see, as I mentioned before, from one day to the other, 100% uprise of the volumes. So therefore, we will need to accommodate maybe smaller drop sizes in the beginning. And then I would say that should not be that much of a problem as we can handle this more flexibly with our out-of-store operation, which still is the lion's share of food service distribution, which is Metro branded, which is the biggest share, of course, of everything we are doing in food service distribution. So to your question, are we ready to adjust drop sizes? The answer is yes. And on the other hand, once we see then the volumes coming back to normal, we also, of course, will adjust the model back to normal.
Yes. And on your other questions. With respect to the difference in investment, basically, on that Page 11, what we always try to do is really showing, as we stated, cash investments. That does exclude the definition from what you have on the normal cash flow statement, which is also including lease investments that are noncash and that is mostly relating to extensions of lease contracts, especially in Germany and partially also in France. With respect to ...
And Christian, may I just interrupt, just to make sure. So the lease expenses, that explains the gap between cash investments down EUR 16 million and investments as shown in the quarterly report on Page 28, up EUR 32 million? So effectively, this explains the gap of like 50 -- roughly EUR 50 million?
Yes. And I think, Juergen, you said expenses, just to be very specific...
No, no. Investments. Investments were up EUR 32 million to EUR 170 million as reported on Page 28 of the quarterly report?
Exactly. Your understanding is absolutely correct.
Okay. Great.
With respect to the cost savings, yes, from next year onwards, we are expecting a mid double-digit million savings. And that should apply in the next fiscal year. And as we are ramping up already that program, we will certainly, by the end of this year, getting closer and closer to that run rate. But from the next fiscal year, you will have that mid double-digit million range.
Okay. So can I just -- maybe just double check. You're expecting the transformation costs to be digested and the measures to be in place by year-end? So that from Q1 '20, 2021 onwards, the mid double-digit million euros in savings will accrue in step by step?
No. Step by step, not because the next year will be basically fully positively impacted by that mid double-digit million position. And as we have, for example, now booked the provisions for that, you can see that we are already in full swing of implementing and executing that program. Therefore, the next year should be supported by that full amount of mid double-digit million.
We will now take the last question from Nicolas Champ from Barclays.
I have 3 actually. The first one is, could you help us to better understand your strong performance in Russia in Q2? How sustainable are they? And maybe could you provide an update regarding the secure [ on turning ] debt amounts top line-wise? Second question is you booked a EUR 25 million goodwill provision in Q2 due to COVID. Do you see risk for additional provisions in the future? And third question is about, could you be a bit more explicit regarding the countermeasures you are implementing to mitigate the impact of the sales decline? I mean namely, how many employees are currently concerned by short-term employments, for instance? And how much of your operating costs do you expect to recover at the moment, for instance?
Yes. Let me take the first question on Russia. So we would have wished to show you the full quarter without COVID because it already was very positive. From January to February, the trend change was quite solid. We mentioned that, by the way, as well already in the Q1 call that we are seeing encouraging signs of improvement in Russia. And that has been based on the strategic plan that has been developed by the team with support here of Rafael Gasset. COVID has then accelerated the trend. Metro is a highly regarded brand in Russia, and therefore, also a safe place to go to buy your goods. And the way I think the Russian team has displayed that strength throughout the last couple of weeks also, illustrating to all employees, but also partners and customers that this is the point of differentiation for Metro has led to accelerated growth. We will do whatever is possible to keep that momentum, of course, also after the time of crisis. Now I need to make a disclaimer here. In Russia, we still see a quite significant increase of cases. Therefore, I think we have not seen the end of restrictions that might be imposed. So I need to make that disclaimer because in the current circumstances we are doing very strong, but circumstances can change.
Yes. And with respect to your question on CFF and other goodwill, I think the situation at CFF is certainly very specific, given that on the one hand the crisis hit very early in Hong Kong especially and also in other Asian megacities there. And it is certainly impacted stronger there. And it was also stated in the Annual Report that the headroom at that stage was rather lower. With respect to other entities, we are constantly reviewing that and Q2 has been exactly one factor in that we do not for the time being see any changes there on the goodwill side. Obviously, that needs to be put under the caveat on how the crisis pans out. But also in light of the knowledge of the crisis situation to date, we do not see any goodwill impairment situation. With respect to your question on the cost savings, we are certainly applying what Olaf has described on that Page 17 across the portfolio and especially in the places that are hit most by the HoReCa lockdown. That certainly is the situation in Italy, in France, and in Spain and also in other places. So we are applying very specifically in those countries the furlough situations and other working agreements that ensure that we do recover as much as possible of the reduced sales by cost savings, but that cannot make up for the entire topic. It is a very country-specific thing that we are doing there.
There are no further questions at this time, and I would like to hand the call back to Olaf Koch for any closing comments. Please go ahead.
Well, thank you all for joining this Q2 call. Thank you for your attention and your interest. Should there be any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Investor Relations teams. They are available and accessible for you. In that sense, all the best, take care and stay healthy.